In the book of Joshua, we read about God's amazing provision for his people. He stops the flow of the Jordan River, allowing the Israelites to cross on dry ground, then allows the massive city of Jericho to crumble and be captured. But listen to what happens next. Immediately after their huge underdog victory at Jericho, the Israelites send a small army of only three thousand men to take over the tiny town of Ai. What was expected to be a routine surrender turns into a horrible massacre as the Israelites are wiped out and forced to retreat.
The Israelite leader, Joshua is distraught by this news and questions God as to where His favor had gone. The Lord tells Joshua there "there is sin in the camp" and further investigation reveals that a man named Achan had stolen loot during the Jericho take over. In obedience to the Lord's request, Joshua and the people stone and burn Achan as well as his family.
Stoning and burning! That's a pretty strong sentence to be handed down by the Lord and doesn't sound much like the forgiving God of the gospels. Today, we like to separate the God of the old and new testament but I want to remind us that God is unchanging - He is the same yesterday today and tomorrow. Even though we have a new way of being made right with God through his son, the God that desired holiness for his people back then, feels no different today. When 2 Timothy 2:20-21 says we are to "cleanse ourselves and be holy vessels, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work," we need to do just that. The word holy means to be right and set apart, and to live a holy life means making decisions based on God's rules, since he's the standard of what's right, and not our own. We cannot halfway follow God or believe in only some of what he says, but instead must fully commit to him both in heart and holiness.
A person can say they believe whatever they want but the true measure of their devotion, and whether or not they live a holy life before God, can only be seen in the heart. Listen to what Jesus had to say to a group of people who were only following him halfway in Mark 7:6-7,"Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: "'These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men. You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men."
So what is it for you? Are the good things you do on a daily basis motivated by the expectations of our culture to be kind and generous or by your devotion and love towards God. There's a difference. While both are certainly "good" ways to live, I have found that general benevolence towards man is still limited by selfishness while living holy means always putting God and God's way first. Achan might have been a good person but he made a bad decision to do things his way instead of God's. What he did was selfish and wrong and was deserving of punishment from a just God.
A few hundred years after the incident at Ai, God spoke the following to the Israelites from 2 Samuel 2:30, "He who who honor me I will honor, but those who despise me will be disdained." If we truly desire God's favor to rest on us, and if we want to see him at work in and through our lives, we need to prepare ourselves by pursing holiness. Will you make it your goal to live holy today?
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